Background: News footage at the scene in Montour Township, Pa., where the body of Katlyn Harp was found (WNEP). Inset: Katlyn Harp (Pennsylvania State Police).
The search for a missing Pennsylvania woman came to a gruesome end when her body was found in a metal box on property that once belonged to her husband.
Vincent Harp, 37, was charged with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence on Sunday after the body of his wife Katlyn Harp, 33, was found the same day. According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, Katlyn Harp was reported missing on June 20 after her sister told police she had not heard from her, which was “not like her.” Police spoke to Vincent Harp, who admitted that he had argued with his wife after dinner on June 19, but when he awoke at 5:00 a.m. the next morning, she was gone.
Katlyn Harp”s sister told police that the Life360 app that she used had also stopped updating on the night she went missing.
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After Katlyn Harp went missing, local efforts and law enforcement agencies banded together to try to find her. Meanwhile, police stayed in contact with Vincent Harp, who allegedly told “inconsistent” stories about his movements “before, during, and after” his wife’s disappearance. Among the discrepancies were conversations he did or did not have with a counselor and whether or not he had his phone on him at certain points in time.
According to the criminal complaint, the investigation yielded a witness at a gas station where Vincent Harp stopped in on June 20 to ask “if the store sold gloves.” When the witness — a cashier — told him that they did not, Vincent Harp asked if he could have a pair from an employee at the gas station. The cashier gave Vincent Harp a pair of gloves, which he then put in his pocket before leaving the station in his silver Chevy Silverado pickup truck.
Police eventually combed through Vincent Harp’s phone records, which placed him in various locations that he allegedly drove to in multiple vehicles. One location was a remote, mountain road that he drove to in a GMC Yukon on the morning of June 20. There, he got stuck in mud, which left drag marks into a wooded area. When asked by police what he was doing there, he was “unable to articulate a reason.”
Vincent Harp’s cellphone was tracked leaving that area and going back to his residence.
According to the criminal complaint, Vincent Harp’s Silverado was seen on surveillance camera just a few hours later — and visible in the bed of the truck was a large, green, metal box.
On June 25, police said that a utility vehicle, or an ATV, that had been sold by Vincent Harp the previous day was brought to a Pennsylvania State Police station. It was inspected and tested positive for human blood.
The search for Katlyn Harp continued on Sunday and made its way to a Harp Lane property that had once been owned by Vincent Harp. With permission from the current owners of the property, investigators and law enforcement descended on the scene and found a large, green, metal box with a “strong smell of decomposition” coming from it. Inside were human remains, with a distinctive tattoo identifying the body as Katlyn Harp.
Police said that further investigation of Vincent Harp’s phone data put him at the location where the body was found on June 21 at around 10:30 a.m. He was also tracked to an area near Harp Lane at around 6 p.m. the same day.
Vincent Harp was arrested and charged with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. He was arraigned on Sunday at 7 p.m. and denied bail. His next court date is scheduled for July 14.
